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Culture & Conversation Abortion
This law was last updated on Jul 21, 2017
This law is Anti–Choice
A 4777
Failed to Pass
Feb 3, 2017
Primary Sponsors: 1
Total Sponsors: 1
A 4777 would prohibit abortions after 20 weeks, as well as abolish “dismemberment abortions,” except in the case of a medical emergency.
20-Week Ban
The bill would prohibit a person from performing an abortion upon another person when the gestational age of the fetus is 20 or more weeks unless all of the following conditions are met:
The bill would require the pregnant patient to have an in-person medical consultation either with the physician who is to perform the procedure or with the referring physician. Such consultation would need to be in a place, at a time and of a duration reasonably sufficient to enable the physician to determine whether the abortion is necessary.
The bill would amend the penal definition of homicide to include:
“[…]conduct which causes the death of a person or an unborn child with which a female has been pregnant for more than twenty weeks under circumstances constituting murder, manslaughter in the first degree, manslaughter in the second degree, criminally negligent homicide, abortion in the first degree or self-abortion in the first degree.”
Dismemberment Abortion
The bill would also prohibit an individual from performing or attempting to perform a “dismemberment abortion” upon another individual when the gestational age of the fetus 20 or more weeks unless:
The bill would prohibit an individual from performing or attempting to perform a “dismemberment abortion” upon another individual when the gestational age of the fetus is less than 20 weeks unless:
The bill defines “dismemberment abortion” to mean:
“The act of knowingly and purposefully causing the death of an unborn child by means of dismembering the unborn child and extracting the unborn child one piece at a time from the uterus through the use of clamps, grasping forceps, tongs, scissors or similar instruments. The term does not include an abortion which is exclusively performed through suction curettage.”
Any person who violates this provision would be committing a class D felony.
The bill provides that the pregnant patient may not be held liable for performing or attempting to perform a dismemberment abortion.
This law targets a procedure known as dilation and evacuation (D and E), which is frequently used during second-trimester abortions. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, an abortion using suction aspiration can be performed up to 14 weeks’ gestation, but after 14 weeks the D and E procedure must be used to perform an abortion. As such, dilation and evacuation bans, depending upon their language, may ban all surgical abortion past 14 weeks’ gestation. (Source.)
Reporting Requirements
The bill would require a report of each abortion performed to be provided to the health department. The report would need to include the following information:
If passed, the law would take effect immediately.
Related Legislation
20 week bans are based on model legislation drafted by the National Right to Life Committee, as well as Americans Untied for Life.
“Dismemberment abortion” bans are based on model legislation drafted by the National Right to Life Committee.
Primary Sponsor